2016 Archives

December 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section participated in The Association’s 2016 Holiday Social on December 15 at BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse. The Association, formerly known as the Huntsville Association of Technical Societies, is a nonprofit association of Huntsville area technical and professional societies

December 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section participated in the 2016 Holiday Open House of the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville and Madison County on December 8, 2016. Greater Huntsville has been a member of the Chamber since 2015

November 2016

On November 8th, Lt. Col. Kenneth Philippart (Ret) was awarded Greater Huntsville Section’s Exceptional Service award. This award is given to a section member who has shown dedication and service going above and beyond expectations to support the section

November 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section participated in Huntsville’s first One Table Thanksgiving lunch on November 21. The gathering was planned by Causeway, a nonprofit group

November 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section saluted its military and veteran members during the month of November, leading up to Veterans Day, including a private tour of the US Veterans Memorial Museum in Huntsville

November 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section supported the University of Alabama – Huntsville Space Hardware Club’s Systems Requirement Review (SRR) and Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the club’s Project Mercury rocket

November 2016

Members of the Greater Huntsville Section attended a presentation by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Director and AIAA Associate Fellow Todd May. Mr. May was the featured speaker at the November breakfast meeting of the Huntsville Chapter of the National Space Club

October 2016

On October 29th, the AIAA Greater Huntsville Section supported the Huntsville Area Rocketry Association (HARA) Rocket City Blastoff as part of the section’s pre-college outreach program. The weather turned out to be clear and sunny

October 2016

The Colling's Foundation’s B-17G Flying Fortress Nine O’ Nine, B-24J Liberator Witchcraft, B-25J Mitchell Tondelayo and TF-51D Mustang were recently at Decatur's Pryor Field. Section members admired, toured and took pictures of the venerable aircraft. Ken Philippart flew in the B-25J and found the flight in Tondelayo to be an interesting counterpoint to his September flight in the B-17G Aluminum Overcast

October 2016

Members of the Greater Huntsville Section attended the Pass the Torch Lecture “Flying the SR-71 Blackbird” by Lt Col (retired) Ed Yeilding on October 6, 2016. The lecture was co-hosted by the US Space & Rocket Center and the HAL5 Society

October 2016

On Saturday October 1, our Pumpkin Blast team – the Greater Huntsville AIAA Pumpkinauts - won 3rd place in the adult category and brought home the Judges’ Award for second time in three years. The event was held, again, at Tate Farms, and the weather was superlative.

September 2016

Members of the Greater Huntsville Section attended a presentation by NASA Associate Administrator Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr. Mr. Lightfoot was the featured speaker at the September breakfast meeting of the Huntsville Chapter of the National Space Club

September 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section participated in the Annual Grass Field Fly-In at Moontown Airport (3M5) on September 17, 2106. This marked the third consecutive year that AIAA has participated in the fly-in. Ten volunteers stepped up to work 2-hours shifts, tripling the number of previous years

September 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section was an exhibitor at the 19th Annual Space & Missile Defense Symposium from August 16 – 18, 2016 at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This was the Section’s second year exhibiting at Huntsville’s largest annual technical forum

September 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section hit the road to Atlanta, GA the last weekend in September to attend the third annual Atlanta Warbird Weekend. Nine members and guests traveled from Huntsville and Tuscaloosa to participate in the weekend activities

September 2016

"Ken Philippart's Birthday Present"
While poking around the Experimental Aircraft Association’s website one day, I noticed that the EAA’s B-17G Aluminum Overcast would be at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati giving rides over the Labor Day weekend. I also realized that my wife, Lisa, and I would be in Dayton, Ohio that weekend for our granddaughter’s first birthday. Dayton is less than an hour north of Cincinnati. I mentioned this to Lisa and also casually mentioned that I had always wanted to fly in a B-17. On my birthday a few weeks later, I opened my card from Lisa and found a reservation for a ride on Aluminum Overcast. Best wife and best birthday ever!

August 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section honored Dr. Arloe W. Mayne for his 50 plus years of service during an Emeritus Ceremony on August 26, 2016. Executive Flight Center, Huntsville Executive Airport's Fixed Base Operator, graciously allowed the use of their executive conference room for the ceremony. Despite severe thunderstorms before and during the event, over 40 people packed the airport conference room to honor Arloe’s years of faithful service.

August 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section hosted a Celebration of Life social on August 4, 2016 in remembrance of Associate Fellow Al Reisz who passed away on July 21. The social was held at the US Space & Rocket Center Davidson Center, under the Saturn V during the weekly biergarten event, a fitting venue since Al worked on the Apollo program earlier in his career and was also of German heritage.

August 2016

Greater Huntsville Section members and families participated in a tour of Old Hickory Lock and Dam on August 13. The tour was organized by the Rocket City Tau Beta Pi Alumni Chapter. Tau Beta Pi invited the members of societies belonging to The Association, formerly known as the Huntsville Association of Technical Societies, to participate as a service to the technical community. Besides members of Tau Beta Pi, eight AIAA members and guests and one member of IEEE participated in the tour, a truly intersociety event.

June 2016

Over 200 people attended the Association's 2016 Professional of the Year dinner, and AIAA was well represented. The celebrations started by recognizing each of the member societies. Following this, the societies’ POY nominees were recognized for their contributions to Huntsville/Madison community

June 2016

On June 15, 2016, AIAA held its Spotlight Awards Gala at the Ronald Regan Building and International Trade Center in Washington D.C. This black tie event celebrates the very best of the aeronautics and astronautics profession. The Greater Huntsville Section was well represented, taking home the Public Service Award and adding two Fellows to the roster

June 2016

The Greater Huntsville Section attended the 2016 Armed Forces Celebration and 75th Anniversary of Redstone Arsenal Dinner on June 30, 2016. The dinner marked the first time the Section has participated in Armed Forces Week festivities and signaled the Section’s renewed outreach to and recognition of its military and Department of Defense constituencies

May 2016

The Greater Huntsville AIAA Section held its 64th Annual Awards Dinner on May 27, 2016 at the Jackson Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The event was conducted by Mr. Brandon Stiltner, the Section’s 2015-2016 Vice-Chairman and the 2016-2017 Chairman-Elect. The invited speaker for the evening was Alabama Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey, the 2016 recipient of the AIAA Public Service Award. Recipients of Section awards, the Section scholarship, Science Fair Awards, and AIAA (National) awards were recognized, as were the outgoing and incoming Section officers and directors

April 2016

Each year the University of Alabama in Huntsville is host to the North Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair and the follow-up Alabama Science and Engineering Fair. Projects are judged in various categories for first, second or third place awards, and several professional organizations sponsor special awards that recognize students presenting notable projects in an organization’s area of interest. The AIAA is one such organization

February 2016

On 6 February, the AIAA Greater Huntsville Section held a ceremony at the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, AL, to honor Commander Earl H. Pearce, U.S. Navy (retired), in recognition of his attainment of Emeritus Member status. Over 55 AIAA members and guests gathered in a historic aviation venue to laud a man who lived much of that history.
(This article by Arloe Mayne and Ken Philippart appeared in the April 2016 issue of Aeronautics and Astronautics.)

January 2016

I recently read Tom Crouch’s history of the AIAA “Rocketeers and Gentlemen Engineers ...”, and I recommend the book. It’s medium-sized (about 300 pages); and it covers the ups and downs, mergers, moves, people, awards, etc. etc. of the AIAA. I found the book an easy read, and quite informative about an organization that I have been involved with since about 1962.
From Arloe Mayne's review.